A bag that contains Narcan packets and is carried in ambulances in Warren.
(RAY SKOWRONEK/THE MACOMB DAILY)

A state lawmaker says this fall he expects passage of a bill package that allows third-party prescriptions of a drug that reverses the effects of a heroin or other opiate drug overdose.

The bill package also requires first-responders to carry and know how to administer naloxone, also known by its brand name, Narcan, to someone suffering from an overdose of opiates such as heroin, Vicodin and OxyContin, among others.

The antidote has the miracle-like quality to immediately reverse the potentially fatal effect of an opiate overload in a person’s body.

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“It kicks the opiate out of the brain. It displaces the opiate,” said Dr. Tony Bonfiglio, medical director of the county Medical Control Authority and chief of the emergency room at St. John Macomb Hospital in Warren.

The law will allow family members and friends of an addict or opiate-drug taker to obtain a prescription for Narcan.

“If you live with an addict, it’s a good thing to have on hand,” Bonfiglio said.

Anthony Forlini, R-Harrison Township, said the House version of the bill passed this spring but time ran out on the Senate version before lawmakers recessed for the summer last week.

He added the House bill passed unanimously and expects it to receive overwhelming support in the Senate.

He has been working on the bill package with Fraser-based Families Against Narcotics for more than a year.

Naloxone can be used for any opiate overdose, whether by a heroin or prescription-drug addict or someone who makes a mistake.

“This medication … can help save the lives of elderly who accidently take too much medication, or a recovering addict who relapses and is in the throes of an overdose,” Forlini said. “It gives a person a second chance.”

Linda Davis, a district court judge in Clinton Township and FAN president, testified in May at a House hearing for the bills. She said saving a life is a worthwhile goal.

Susan Gregory of Sterling Heights, whose son, Dennis, died at age 20 from an overdose in 2006, supports expanding the antidote’s use. She believes it should be available in all public places the way defibillators are. Her son died in a public bathroom, a Farmer Jack’s store at 10 Mile and Hoover roads in Warren. Her son was administered naloxone at the hospital or by paramedics, but it was too late, she said. Her son was with two other addicts.

“If the addicts or the (store) pharmacy had it on hand, it could have been administered sooner and perhaps saved his life,” she said.

The Network for Public Health Law supports greater availability of naloxone as heroin use and overdoses increase. The Network says its use is increasing across the nation; 20 states allow third-party prescriptions for Narcan. In addition, more than 50,000 people – non first responders -- in the United States have been trained by 188 community groups, and have reversed 10,000 overdoses, according to Trust for America’s Health, a research organization.

All advanced-life-support ambulances in Macomb County have carried Narcan or naloxone for many years, according to Gary Canfield, executive of The Macomb County Medical Control Authority.

“Virtually the entire county is covered by ALS units,” Canfield said.

In Warren, in a one-year period ending March 31, Narcan was used 134 times, 57 times for heroin, according to Fire Commissioner Wilburt McAdams. Warren ambulances had 10,828 calls in 2013, he said.

Nationally, fatal heroin overdoses increased 45 percent from 2006 to 2010, when 3,038 people died, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

In Michigan, fatal heroin overdoses increased from 271 from 1999 through 2002 to 728 in 2010-2012, according to the state Department of Community Health. Admissions for heroin treatment programs has nearly doubled since 2000, from 6,500 to 12,753 in 2012.

Macomb County led the state in heroin deaths in 2010-12, with 202.

Admissions to county-sponsored treatment programs for heroin and other opiates has more than doubled in 10 years, climbing from 1,126 in 2004, to 2,045 in 2008 to 2,497 in 2013, according to the Macomb County Office of Substance Abuse.

Experts say the common path to heroin addiction is through a prescription-drug habit.

The bill package also would require police officers to carry it, which is favored by Macomb County Sheriff Anthony Wickersham. That mandate has a three-year sunset provision that would return the decision back to county medical control organizations, Forlini reported.

The law would exempt the person from criminal prosecution or civil responsibility in case of a mishap “as long as it is done in good faith,” Forlini said.

The antidote must be administered “within a certain time frame” to save the person’s life, according to Canfield.

Bonfiglio, who has administered it, said it can be administered into a muscle or vein.

He added the irony of the antidote is that an addict whose life is saved isn’t always appreciative at the time because it immediately reverses the effects of his or her high.

“They wake up immediately, usually because they don’t feel well and they’re cheesed off,” he said. “They vomit. They are put into instant withdrawal.”

Still, Judge Davis notes: “Statistics show that if these kids are given a second opportunity, they often take advantage of it and become good, productive citizens.”

About the Author

My beat is the courts of Macomb County and general assignment.
Read more of Jameson Cook's court coverage on his blog http://courthousedish.blogspot.com/ Reach the author at jamie.cook@macombdaily.com
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